CHAPTER 1
Historical Perspectives
The energy industry is undergoing unprecedented change as it reacts to new challenges in safety, regulation, exploration, and alternative-energy initiatives. One need only layer on the global political environment and the long-ranging repercussions of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill or the turmoil in the Middle East to realize that the energy sector is as complex as it has ever been. From this increasing complexity springs the need for this book. The following pages present a framework for understanding the basic elements of energy-industry economics. While not covering geology or refining from technical standpoints, this book provides a framework for analyzing the industry's basics and economics, and thereby ...
